Summary

One in five people worldwide are currently under orders or requests to stay home. With masks, ventilators and political goodwill in desperately short supply, more than one-fifth of the worlds population was ordered or urged to stay in their homes Monday at the start of what could be a pivotal week in the battle to contain the coronavirus in the US and Europe.

The UK is under lockdown. Boris Johnson will order police to enforce a strict coronavirus lockdown, with a ban on gatherings of more than two people and strict limits on exercise, as he told the British public: “You must stay at home.”

Half of the US is under orders or advice to stay home in sixteen states, with Hawaii the most recent state to order a lockdown.

Hubei and Wuhan will have travel restrictions lifted two weeks apart, starting tomorrow. The Health Commission for China’s Hubei province said on Tuesday it will remove all travel restrictions in and out of the province on 25 March, with the exception of the city of Wuhan, the provincial capital and the epicentre of the country’s coronavirus outbreak. Travel restrictions for leaving Wuhan will be lifted on 8 April

Donald Trump said the US would open up in weeks for the sake of the economy. In a televised press conference from the White House on Monday evening, Trump said he hoped to get the US economy going again as soon as possible and was not open to the idea of restrictive public health measures going on for months.

The United Nations appealed for an immediate global ceasefire, calling on an end to all armed conflicts so that the world can instead focus on fighting Coronavirus.

Japan’s government is negotiating with the International Olympic Committee to postpone the Tokyo Olympic Games by a maximum one year, the Sankei newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Global recoveries passed 100,000 but the pandemic ‘is accelerating’. The World Heath Organization said it had taken 67 days from the first reported case to reach the first 100,000 cases, 11 days for the second 100,000 cases, and only four for the third 100,000 cases.

Myanmar reported its first confirmed cases of coronavirus in two men who had recently travelled to the United States and the United Kingdom.

Philippines cases passed 500. The Philippine health ministry on Tuesday confirmed 39 new cases of the coronavirus, bringing the country’s total to 501.

Italy registered a smaller day-to-day increase in new coronavirus cases for the second day. The death toll from the outbreak grew by 602 to 6,078, the head of the Civil Protection Agency said. While that is an 11% increase, it is the smallest nominal rise since last Thursday.

New York state confirmed 20,000 infections. The governor, Andrew Cuomo, said the state had 5,707 new cases, meaning it has confirmed 20,875 in total.

Panama confirmed the death one of the youngest victims of the virus, a 13-year-old girl.

Over a fifth of the worlds population was ordered or urged to stay in their homes Monday at the start of what could be a pivotal week in the battle to contain the coronavirus in the US and Europe.

Fewer potholes being repaired in England and Wales

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In Australia, Amnesty International wants state and territory governments to release children who are on remand and are detained in adult watch houses.

“We’re talking about kids as young as 10 in adult prisons,” Amnesty International Australia Indigenous Rights Lead, Lidia Thorpe said.

“Most of these kids are later released without conviction, only underlining that it’s totally unacceptable to leave them in prison when they would be safer at home with their family.

Thorpe said under the Convention of the Rights of the Child, detention of a child before trial or after sentencing must be used only as a measure of last resort, for the shortest time possible, and separate from detained adults wherever possible.

“Given that the spread of COVID-19 is a particular public health concern in custodial environments, the authorities should urgently release these children and seriously consider the same for other groups at special risks,” Amnesty said.

Earlier today the NSW government announced new emergency powers aimed at keeping the justice system functional, including giving the corrections minister power to early release or parole certain prisoners on a case by case basis.

For those of you just waking up in the UK, here is a reminder of what the nationwide lockdown measures mean for you.

Members of a family listen as Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson makes a televised address to the nation from inside 10 Downing Street in London on March 23, 2020. Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images

What do the new restrictions involve?

In brief: an Italian-style lockdown to force people to stay at home beyond a small range of very limited circumstances. Under the terms explained by Boris Johnson in his TV address, people will be allowed to leave home only for the following reasons:

shopping for necessities, as infrequently as possible;

one form of exercise a day, such as running or cycling, alone or with household members;

for medical or care needs, for example to help a vulnerable person;

travelling to and from work, but only if you cannot work from home.

Meeting friends, shopping for anything beyond essentials, and gathering in crowds are now banned.

UK lockdown: what are the new coronavirus restrictions?

Even though it was 56 years ago, Kazuo Goto still vividly remembers his pride as he carried the Olympic flame on the last day of the torch relay when Tokyo hosted the Games in 1964, AFP reports.

This picture taken on March 16, 2020 shows Kazuo Goto, a Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games torch bearer, posing with his torch at his home in Japan. Photograph: Behrouz Mehri/AFP via Getty Images

But with the coronavirus threatening the torch relay and even the Olympic Games themselves, the 73-year-old believes the 2020 version should be scrapped, as torchbearers need to be able to carry the flame with a “clear conscience.”

“We are not in a position where we can go ahead with the torch relay as planned,” Goto, a former insurance broker, told AFP in an interview at his house in Yokosuka, southwest of Tokyo.

Plugging ahead regardless seems to be “egoism” on the part of organisers, he said

Goto questioned what would happen if the torch relay begins but the Olympics are postponed in the middle of the event - a fairly likely scenario with the International Olympic Committee giving itself four weeks to make a decision.

“Do they let them run and then they say they can’t hold the Olympics?” he asked.

“I ran with my head high and chest out under the sunshine, representing my country. That’s the significance,” Goto said, cradling the torch he carried in 1964.

The UK front pages as Britons wake to coronavirus lockdown

Graham Russell

Here is how newspapers on the morning of Tuesday, 24 March have covered Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s historic announcement.

The Guardian says today that Boris Johnson will order police to enforce a strict coronavirus lockdown, with gatherings of more than two people banned. The headline: “PM: Stay at home, this is a national emergency”.

'A national emergency': what the papers say about the UK's coronavirus lockdown

Around 20% of global population under coronavirus lockdown

One in five people around the globe are under lockdown, ordered or asked to stay home as the world enters a critical week in responding to the accelerating coronavirus pandemic.

As of Tuesday there have been at least 378,679 confirmed cases of people with the virus across the world. More than 16,500 people have died while almost 101,000 have recovered.

The first 100,000 cases took 67 days to appear, while the most recent 100,000 just four days, noted the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. But “we are not helpless bystanders”, he said.